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How A Former Security Guard Tatay Edwin Graduated Magna Cum Laude At 46 Years Old | Toni Talks - YouTube
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You might know him from his viral video that was posted by
his daughter.
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He graduated Bachelor of Education, Major in Generalist.
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A magna cum laude.
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Here with us today is Sir Edwin Salvador.
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Hi Sir Edwin.
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Hello.
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All the way from Bulacan?
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How does it feel to graduate as a magna cum laude
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at the age of 46 years old?
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Actually ma'am,
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I was told that I was graduating with honors.
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I couldn't believe it even after I was awarded my medal and
left the stage.
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The reason I was crying in that video
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is that at that moment I could really feel the Lord's
presence in my life.
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With all the hardships I went through,
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the only thing I wanted was to graduate and be able to
teach.
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But He even blessed me with Latin honor
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and this moment,
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- with me being here.
- It's so amazing.
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I even got interviewed.
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Your story is so amazing.
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Because you're proof that
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nothing is impossible if you continue to purse your dreams.
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- Yes.
- When you're hard working,
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determined and persistent.
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Because you didn't have an easy life.
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Yes.
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During elementary, I always had honor every year.
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There was even a time that I couldn't attend my graduation,
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even though I had honor, because I had nothing to wear
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and we also had to pay for the medal.
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- I think that was worth only 35 pesos.
- You couldn't pay for it?
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Yes ma'am, because we were really poor.
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So even though you had honor, you didn't attend your
graduation?
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Due to my teacher's pity,
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"Go on, you should attend."
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"I'll pay for it."
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When we were young, my mother
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sold fish sauce, vinegar and soy sauce for a living.
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She does everything she can think of to earn a living.
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When you say selling,
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- do you mean like a peddler that sells on the streets?
- She carries a bayong.
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And crosses embankments.
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She brings her goods to those near the fields,
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in the middle of the uncemented areas.
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And she's a little fat so she has a hard time crossing
embankments.
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What she does is she literally crawls through the fields.
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My father on the other hand is a laborer.
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A normal worker in a textile company
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wherein he earns a minimum salary.
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My mom makes a budget of what they both earn.
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And your house, during storms when you were a kid...
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Our house had two stories.
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The lower floor is open.
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It's where we played with the ducks and chickens.
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While the upper floor is made of palm.
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And when there's a storm, it dances with the wind.
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And it leaks?
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There are parts that leak and parts that don't.
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That's why my mother is like a mother hen,
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she shields us under her wings.
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Because it rains and it's cold.
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And while she does that,
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she also grooms us
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while lecturing us.
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"Do you see the hardships we have in life?"
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"You should work hard."
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"When you grow up, you should study hard."
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"Because if you study hard and graduate
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you'll have a good job afterwards."
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So during my second year of high school
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I worked as a water carrier.
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I earn one peso per container.
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I would carry that and it was a little far.
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I would carry that to the second floor of the house.
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And if I carried ten containers, I earn 10 pesos.
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I now had pocket money.
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I had money to buy lunch
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wherein I would buy those flying saucer-shaped breads with
margarine,
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and that would serve as my lunch.
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When night comes after coming home from school, around 12
midnight,
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I would wash jeepneys.
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I'm given 20 pesos or 25 pesos for that.
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Like that.
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But you were 20 years old when you got married, right?
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I got carried away by the passion of youth.
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That even though it wasn't planned
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I had to face my responsibilities.
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We lived in the kitchen of my mother.
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Sometimes we live with my mother and sometimes with my
mother-in-law.
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It was hard ma'am because
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we both didn't finish school.
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You know it's...
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It's like I'm a cannonball.
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Wherever you are aimed at,
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you really need to work hard
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so that you can find something to do to earn a living.
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Because I heard
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that you worked in a chicken butchery.
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Yes.
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In a shoe factory.
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Yes.
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In a jeans factory.
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Yes.
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In a blinds factory.
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Yes.
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In fastfood chains.
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Yes.
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As a plumber.
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Yes.
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As a salesman.
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With billiards.
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Yes.
With video games.
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Yes.
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Repaired broken appliances.
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It's because I didn't...
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want to waste time, I always want to be productive and have
something to do.
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But when you were working as an employee for different
places,
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didn't you say that your desire to study is still there.
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It never disappeared ma'am.
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My report card in high school,
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that was in 1994,
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I kept that
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because,
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I knew I would use it again when the time came.
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I hid that because
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I dreamed and
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I really wanted to study.
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I would need to use that report card
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to enroll in college.
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How did you enter college?
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Because you worked as a security guard?
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Yes. I resigned
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and my sibling said, "Bro,
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no one else needs to study".
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Because my eldest has already graduated at that time.
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"This is your time to study, brother."
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"But how would I study
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when I'm currently working."
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"You would really have to resign."
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So there, I resigned.
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As a security guard?
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Yes.
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Where did you work as a security guard?
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In the school that I studied at.
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Just when I resigned,
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because I really wanted to study,
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they opened the...
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In College?
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In college-
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for elementary education.
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Basically we were the pioneers.
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Did you pay for your college tuition fee?
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It turned out that
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it was free.
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Yes.
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- That's amazing.
- You know, that feeling
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that the Lord makes ways for you.
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He would provide you with everything you need.
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Yes.
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When I went to college,
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the tuition was free for state universities and state
colleges.
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How old were you when you first went to college?
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I was 42, ma'am.
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It was only in 2018, ma'am.
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Yes 2018, you still have a chance if you really want to
achieve it.
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Yes.
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So when you got into college,
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what did you feel?
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I felt a little uneasy.
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- Why?
- Because...
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I didn't know how to use a tablet.
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Yes.
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A few months before I enrolled in college,
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I still owned a cellphone with keypads.
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You know the feeling that the gate I used to guard,
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I would simply pass by
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not as an employee or a guard,
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but as a student.
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You were sitll working when you became a student?
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Yes.
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- So you became a working student?
- Yes ma'am.
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I went to school from 3PM to 9PM.
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In the morming ma'am,
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I would find side jobs that I could do.
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Fixing air conditioners, electric fans, washing machines.
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Anything, even sinks, clogged sinks, clogged toilet bowls.
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How were you able to study then?
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Because in the morning you worked
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and from 3PM to 9PM, you were in school.
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Yes ma'am.
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So you only had 9PM to 12PM to study.
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That was exactly it.
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The time you mentioned, ma'am.
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I studied and made outputs from 9PM to 12MN.
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I would sleep then the next day, I would have a whole new
routine.
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What do you do when you sometimes feel exhausted?
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Because that kind of life is really exhausting.
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I actually remember ma'am that sometimes in class,
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because I'm so exhausted,
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I was shocked that my classmates were laughing at me
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because I was snoring loudly.
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Apparently, I fell asleep.
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Because of exhaustion?
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Yes.
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Maybe I'm just pulling the right amount of...
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wisdom and strength from the Lord because,
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that's what I learned from all the hardships that I've
experienced.
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Just keep faith to the Lord.
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He will provide everything.
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He will guide you.
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He will teach you everything.
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Everything. He will provide.
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When I went to college,
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my eldest has already graduated as a teacher.
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She graduated with a course of...
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Secondary Education Major in MAPEH.
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That's why we both worked to provide for the family.
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Yes.
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After 4 years,
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What does it feel to finally
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graduate?
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It's like...
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Is this real? Am I really going to graduate?
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I even have Latin honor.
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- Magna cum laude.
- Yes.
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Until I walk up the stage
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and my wife hung my medal around me,
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I was like...
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Is this real?
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Yes.
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When we came down
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and met with my classmates,
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there, I cried.
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It's real.
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Why did you cry? What did you feel?
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- What did you feel?
- Because you know that-
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presence of the Lord that
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He is guiding you and accompanying you.
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He never abandoned you.
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In the four years that I studied,
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I had no permanent work.
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I was only doing side works.
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He didn't miss anything.
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Did you expect to be magna cum laude?
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No.
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I only wanted to graduate.
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So when they said that you're magna cum laude,
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how did you take that?
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Was your daugther a magna cum laude when she graduated?
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No.
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Wow, daddy was a better student that the daughter.
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My sister...
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Daddy got her beat, he's magna cum laude.
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My sister after me, is a cum laude.
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The third and the fourth,
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also had high grades but they didn't had Latin Honors.
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As others said...
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"Oh, eldest brother did better than you".
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- That's right.
- Yes.
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My sibling remembered what our mother said,
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"Out of all of your siblings,
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your eldest brother is the only one who didn't finish his
studies."
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"But if he was able to finish his studies,
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he's the smartest of you all."
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- Your mother said that?
- Yes.
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When she was still alive.
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Before I graduated in February,
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my mother died.
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- So she didn't see you graduate.
- No.
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But she knew that.
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She knew.
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Yes, that I was going to graduate.
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Even though she didn't see it physically,
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she saw it in spirit.
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Yes, ma'am.
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That you graduated.
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You know ma'am, my mother didn't want to hang the graduation
photos of my siblings.
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Because I have no graduation picture that she could hang.
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But now I have.
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Now you have.
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Yes.
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I think you cried because you dedicated it to your mother?
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Yes because,
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She could no longer see it...
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There.
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Also my grandmother, ma'am.
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Even when she was at the brink of death,
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she really wanted to pay for my studies.
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But it wasn't-
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possible at that time, just now.
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What did you learn from everything you've been through?
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To be dilligent.
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To never stop dreaming.
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To always be dilligent.
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The passion...
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is always there.
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Never lose hope.
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And to always have faith in God.
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That should be the first.
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To believe in God.
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What did you feel when you went viral?
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At first I was like,
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"Whew, what's that?"
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- I didn't want it.
- In Tiktok?
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Yes, I didn't want it.
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Because I didn't want them to call me arrogant.
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But when a lot of people messaged me,
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even though I don't know them,
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they said, "Sir, your story is inspiring."
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"You're so amazing."
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"Because of you, I would go back to my studies."
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"I'm like you, I got married early."
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"So because I watched your video,
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I would return to my studies."
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They said things like that.
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There were others from out of the country that said,
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"Sir, you're amazing."
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"I'm going to continue my studies, you're so inspiring."
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That.
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Because of that,
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I would endevour
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to do my best in the career that I've chosen.
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When you hear those words,
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"I'm inspired by you."
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"I'm inspired to continue my studies."
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How does it feel to inspire other people?
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Just like when I was studying wherein He would talk to me,
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He does the same now but with a different context.
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Because I didn't know those people
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then someone would suddenly say those words.
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It's like God is saying,
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"So you've graduated."
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"There you go, you've fulfilled your dreams."
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"I've given it to you and you did your best."
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And my philosophy in teaching is
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like I serve as the children's light,
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wherein I would teach them,
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guide them,
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not only to learn what's in the books,
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but to also know the value of family and themselves.
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And most of all, God.
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The country, like that.
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To become their guide
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while they're studying.
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Now, you're a teacher?
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Yes, I'm a teacher at a private school.
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In Garden Angel Integrated School.
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Wherein they hired me even though I haven't graduated yet.
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Yes, and I was delighted that they weren't bothered by my
age.
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They hired me because they saw I had the right
qualifications.
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That too, I'm thankful to people like them that
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help people like me
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who works hard and is a little late in the game.
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Still, they hired me.
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You're a teacher now, right?
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But if I were to ask you,
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who's your greatest teacher in life?
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It'll probably be my mother.
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Because...
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if what I went through was hard,
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more so what my mother went through.
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With what little money my father earned,
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she was able to raise us.
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That's why all of us siblings are now teachers.
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Because of her.
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To those who have the ability to help others,
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you might be the instruments that the Lord has been waiting
for
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to help those like me.
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There are a lot of those like me
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who are waiting for the right opportunity.
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They might be the ones that the Lord will use to help others
in need.
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